Non-Emergency Patient Transport (NEPTS) Tenders
Non-emergency patient transport is commissioned by integrated care boards, usually as large multi-year regional contracts covering planned, unplanned and enhanced priority journeys. Where the service is a CQC-regulated activity it falls inside the Provider Selection Regime; where it is not, it does not.
Key facts at a glance
- Who commissions it
- Integrated care boards, individually or as regional collaboratives, sometimes procured through NHS Shared Business Services
- Which rules apply
- The Provider Selection Regime where the service is a CQC-regulated activity; the Procurement Act 2023 where it is not
- Service tiers
- Planned transport for routine appointments, unplanned transport for discharges and short-notice bookings, and enhanced priority transport for time-critical journeys
- Typical scale
- Regional, multi-year and substantial. A 2026 NEPTS procurement covered Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Merseyside, Cumbria and part of Derbyshire on an initial five-year term
- Hard gate
- A valid CQC registration certificate for the relevant regulated activities. Failure to evidence it disqualifies you from those services
- Workforce
- TUPE almost always applies on a service transfer, which makes the mobilisation and staff engagement response heavily weighted
Why NEPTS is a specialist bid, not a transport bid
A NEPTS contract is a clinical service delivered on wheels. The evaluator is not buying vehicle capacity, they are buying safe, timely conveyance of patients who are often frail, post-operative, immunosuppressed or on a dialysis schedule that does not move. Responses written from a logistics or fleet perspective consistently score below responses written from a patient pathway perspective, even where the operator is objectively better resourced.
That is also why regulatory compliance now dominates the evaluation. Patient transport delivering a regulated activity requires CQC registration, and the registration certificate for the correct activities is treated as a pass or fail item rather than a scored one. Bidders have been disqualified at that point with a strong operational offer behind them.
The compliance bar is what keeps the bidder pool small, and a small bidder pool is the best commercial news a competent operator can get. It also means the contracts are worth pursuing properly rather than opportunistically.
The three tiers, and where bids come apart
Planned transport is the volume. It is scored on booking accuracy, arrival timeliness, on-vehicle time and aborted journeys, and it is where your own operational data either supports you or does not. Present real figures for a stated period. Targets are discounted.
Unplanned transport, covering discharges and short-notice bookings, is where trusts feel the pain most acutely, because a delayed discharge blocks a bed. A response that demonstrates surge capacity, a real escalation route and a discharge-focused resource model scores disproportionately well relative to the volume it represents.
Enhanced and priority transport, particularly renal dialysis and oncology, carries the clinical risk. These patients travel on a fixed schedule and cannot be flexed. Evaluators look for named dedicated resource, crew competency for the patient group, and contingency that does not borrow from the dialysis run to cover a discharge.
Eligibility criteria, and the question nobody answers well
NEPTS is not universal transport. Patients qualify against national eligibility criteria, and the provider usually applies the screening at the booking stage. This creates the single most awkward question in the specification: how do you decline a journey to a patient who believes they qualify, without generating a complaint, a missed appointment and a safeguarding risk.
Most bidders answer it with a policy statement. The ones who score answer it with the script, the escalation route, the clinical override, the audit of declined bookings and the data on what happened to those patients. Commissioners have seen the policy answer many times.
TUPE and mobilisation carry more weight than the price
A NEPTS transfer usually moves an existing workforce. That makes mobilisation a genuine commissioner risk rather than a formality, and it is weighted accordingly. The response needs the staff transfer plan, the consultation timetable, how you protect service continuity through the transfer window, fleet availability against the go-live date, and the integration with the trust booking systems.
We treat mobilisation as a scored technical response rather than an appendix. The same discipline applies across every service transfer, and it is covered more generally in our guidance on writing a tender mobilisation plan and on TUPE in tenders.
How Glaxtons works on a NEPTS submission
We qualify honestly first. A regional NEPTS contract is a large, long bid and it is not winnable from a standing start without the CQC position, the fleet plan and the operational data behind it. If the realistic move is a subcontract position or a smaller ICB lot this cycle and the main contract next cycle, we will say that.
Where the bid is worth making, we write the clinical and operational responses to the published weightings using your data, build the mobilisation and TUPE narrative, handle social value and the net zero and fleet decarbonisation questions that now appear in most NEPTS specifications, and manage the portal submission.
Providers who are not CQC registered for the relevant activity should start there rather than with the bid. See CQC registration support and NHS supplier eligibility, and note that from 9 February 2026 CQC rejects incomplete registration applications at the point of submission rather than returning them with queries.
Who should apply?
This page is written for the providers that bid for patient transport work:
Frequently asked questions
Does a patient transport provider need CQC registration to bid?
If the service delivers a regulated activity, yes, and the registration certificate for the correct activities is a disqualifying requirement in NEPTS procurements rather than a scored one. Transport that does not deliver a regulated activity does not require registration and also sits outside the Provider Selection Regime.
Who commissions NEPTS contracts?
Integrated care boards, often jointly across a region, and sometimes procured on their behalf through NHS Shared Business Services. Contracts are typically multi-year with extension options, which is why they are worth bidding properly rather than opportunistically.
Can a smaller operator win NEPTS work?
Yes, but usually through a lot, a tier or a subcontract position rather than a whole regional contract from a standing start. Ambulatory and renal tiers are frequently accessible to well-run smaller operators, and a subcontract position in one cycle builds the evidence for a prime bid in the next.
How is a NEPTS bid actually scored?
Heavily on operational performance evidence, clinical safety and crew competency, eligibility screening, mobilisation and TUPE, and increasingly on fleet decarbonisation and social value. Price matters but rarely decides it, because commissioners have been burned by underpriced transfers that failed on mobilisation.
What does TUPE mean for our NEPTS bid?
On a service transfer you will usually inherit the incumbent workforce, with their terms. That affects your cost model and your mobilisation plan, and commissioners score how credibly you manage the transfer. Requesting and interrogating the TUPE data early is one of the highest value things a bidder does.
How much does NEPTS bid support cost?
Fixed fees agreed before work starts, scoped to the contract and the deadline. A regional NEPTS submission is a substantial piece of work and we price it as one. Glaxtons has a 93% success rate across more than 500 submissions. Call 020 3668 5488.
Open and upcoming framework deadlines
NEPTS is commissioned by individual ICBs and regional collaboratives rather than through a national framework, so contracts appear as separate notices. Ask us to map your region.
See every tracked framework deadlineBidding for a patient transport contract
Send us the specification and your CQC position. We will tell you which tiers are winnable for your fleet and crew this cycle, and write the submission. Call 020 3668 5488.